The Challenge
E-power is a Belgian manufacturer of premium generator systems, supplying critical power to companies worldwide. As demand grew and product lines became more advanced, e-power launched a new production facility dedicated to building the P-grid, a hybrid energy solution that combines a diesel generator with a powerful battery pack. Their new P-grid is a complex product built for equally complex environments. But scaling its production required more than just engineering ingenuity.
We visited the new plant and sat down with Jan Billen, Sustainable Plant Manager at e-power, and Robrecht Sollie, Project Manager Consultant at Vlegel Technology, who’s supporting their digitization journey. Together, they shared how they approached the setup from a blank slate and what it took to bring structure to an entirely new production line.
It quickly became clear how ambitious the operation was: building the line from scratch, onboarding a team where 90% of the operators were new, and ensuring each product met rigorous industry standards. Managing subassemblies, ensuring traceability, and maintaining quality, all without the crutch of paper instructions or manual reporting, meant they needed a system that could do more than just display steps.
Here’s how Azumuta helped them lay a digital foundation that supports both day-to-day operations and long-term growth.
1. Managing Complex and Scalable Production
E-power’s new facility marked a major shift in how the company approached manufacturing. Previously focused on small-batch, custom-built generators, they now set out to produce sustainable hybrid systems in larger volumes using a continuous flow production model. This transition required a rethink of how production was structured and demanded more standardization, more consistency, and tighter control across every station on the line.
Starting from a blank slate offered freedom in design but came with equally high expectations. Processes had to be built from the ground up, with no room for guesswork. With 90% of the operators new to the job, it was crucial to create a stable environment where instructions were clear, quality was trackable, and errors could be avoided, not just detected after the fact.
Managing subassemblies adds another layer of complexity. Multiple components must be assembled in sequence and integrated into the final product without mismatch or delay. At the same time, maintaining traceability becomes essential to ensure fast root-cause analysis and quality control as production scales.
Traditional methods like printed instructions or static binders couldn’t support that kind of operation. They were too slow to update, too disconnected from real-time execution, and too limited in guiding a growing team. E-power needed a solution that could bring clarity, structure, and control into a fast-moving production environment right from the start.
How Did Azumuta Help?
To build a scalable production line that meets industry standards, e-power needed clear instructions, full traceability, and control over every step. Azumuta brought all of that together in one platform.
Digital Work Instructions
Azumuta provides step-by-step digital work instructions at each station, displayed on screens right where the work happens. These instructions are structured, visual, and easy to follow, giving operators the confidence to execute tasks correctly from the start. Whether mounting a component or performing a quality check, each action is supported with exactly the guidance needed, helping reduce errors and eliminate confusion.
Subassemblies
Since e-power’s P-grid production relies on subassemblies coming together, Azumuta supports this by linking product orders between subassemblies and the final assembly line. When an operator scans a component, the system verifies whether it belongs to the current build. If something doesn’t match — a wrong barcode, a missing part, or incorrect quantity, the system flags it immediately and blocks progress. This product order validation ensures not only traceability, but also accuracy at every stage of the assembly process.
Hardware Integrations
Hardware integrations add another layer of precision. Smart tools were integrated directly into the platform to automatically capture torque values and fastener data. Label printers were also connected to generate unique tags linked to the correct work order. These peripheral connections ensure that quality wasn’t left to chance, every step, every component, and every adjustment was accounted for.
End-to-end Traceability
Every completed task is automatically logged in Azumuta, linking each action to the operator and the station. At the end of the process, a report detailed what was done, by whom, and under what conditions. This level of traceability allows e-power to meet industry standards. It gives them the transparency they need to demonstrate control over every stage of production and enable quick root-cause analysis if an issue occurs.
We were looking for a program that could support us in setting up everything from scratch. That’s why we chose Azumuta, it’s very flexible when it comes to creating all the operator work instructions.
2. Onboarding and Managing a 90% New Operator Workforce
Roughly 90% of the operators in e-power’s new production hall were new to the company and many had no prior experience with the new production process. On top of that, the team was highly diverse, with multiple native languages spoken on the shop floor.
This presented a serious operational challenge: how do you bring a large, inexperienced, multilingual team up to speed quickly, while still maintaining high standards for quality, traceability, and compliance from day one?
Traditional onboarding methods, shadowing experienced workers, distributing printed manuals, or running classroom-style training, simply didn’t scale. There were too many new hires, too many evolving processes, and too little time. E-power needed a way to make complex tasks accessible, repeatable, and easy to execute (even for first-day operators) without compromising on consistency or control.
How Did Azumuta Help?
Multilingual Work Instructions
Azumuta gave e-power the tools to guide and support new operators from the very first shift directly on the shop floor. Instead of relying on printed manuals or lengthy training sessions, operators use visual, interactive, and easy to follow instructions, helping new hires quickly gain confidence while reducing mistakes.
Because the platform supports multiple languages, Azumuta offers instructions in operator’s preferred language, making it easier to onboard a diverse team without slowing down production.
Double Checks
For critical steps, Azumuta prompts double checks by requiring a team leader to verify the action before moving forward. New operators, in particular, are guided through sensitive tasks with extra oversight. The team leader reviews the step, confirms the work, and signs off in the system, adding an extra layer of control and accountability when it matters most.
In a fast-moving environment with a mostly new team, Azumuta helped e-power bring structure to complexity and gave operators the confidence, clarity, and tools they needed to succeed from day one.
Continuous Improvement
Every completed step is automatically logged, providing full traceability without the burden of extra paperwork. This means quality issues can be traced back immediately and production managers have greater day-to-day visibility into what’s happening on the floor.
When instructions are unclear or need refinement, operators could flag issues or suggest changes directly within the platform. Feedback reaches team leads in real time, enabling faster updates and a tighter loop between shop floor and management. This helps create a sense of ownership among operators and allowed the team to continuously improve processes without delay.
With Azumuta, e-power’s FTR indicator has been improving from day to day, since they can directly implement optimizations that improve the production processes.
Once the workers actually saw what benefits there were to Azumuta and how it could help them do their daily job better, they truly embraced it.
To conclude the challenge,
By partnering with Azumuta, e-power successfully launched its new sustainable production line on time and with outstanding results. The combination of digital work instructions, rapid training tools, real-time feedback, and robust traceability provided exactly what e-power needed to overcome the twin challenges of a from-scratch plant build and a novice workforce.
Azumuta enabled e-power’s operators, most of them newcomers, to perform like seasoned professionals.
The shop floor team can confidently execute complex processes, adapt to changes quickly, and maintain high quality, all while continuously improving operations. In the end, E-Power achieved a smooth and speedy ramp-up of production. The new plant not only met its output and quality targets but did so with a level of efficiency and agility that sets a benchmark for sustainable manufacturing launches.
Azumuta’s platform was integral in turning e-power’s ambitious vision into a day-to-day reality on the shop floor, empowering the company’s people and processes to excel from the very start.
Implementation
From the beginning, Azumuta served as the backbone of the production system. It supported not only work instructions and training, but also quality checks and traceability across the new plant.
The collaboration with the Azumuta team was described as highly supportive and adaptable. E-power’s P-grid Plant Manager, Jan Billen, emphasized that the platform was not imposed in a rigid way; instead, Azumuta asked how e-power wanted their processes to work and helped set up the system accordingly. The result was a solution tailored to e-power’s production process.
This flexibility proved essential during the rapid setup phase. E-power rolled out instructions gradually, gathering feedback from both team leaders and operators. Thanks to Azumuta’s ease of use, the company was able to respond quickly to feedback and improve instructions iteratively, helping them move from a basic starting point to a robust set of shop floor standards in a short period of time.
